The police yesterday started deploying extra troops into violence-torn Spanish Town on the same day that an estimated 5,000 persons prayed for an end to the intermittent bloodshed that has claimed at least 17 lives over the past two weeks.

But with police and soldiers already posted in other trouble spots across the capital, it was unclear how many law enforcement officers could be sent to the old capital.

“What has to be done is to. shift resources from one area to another on the basis of priority,” Acting Commissioner of Police Charles Scarlett told the Observer late yesterday evening, after a meeting between the police top brass and the Spanish Town business community at Twickenham Park on the outskirts of the historic town.

“An increase in police presence can be expected in the town, and we will stay the course until the town returns to normal,” added Scarlett, who will today resume his duties as a deputy commissioner on the return to office of Commissioner Lucius Thomas, who was abroad.

Spanish Town Chamber of Commerce President Dennis Robotham emerged from the same meeting expressing confidence in the police plan.

“We are satisfied that something can be worked out for the peace of Spanish Town” he told the Observer. “Based on the response of Acting Commissioner Scarlett, I believe we can look forward to change immediately.”

According to Robotham, the police need to maintain a sustained presence in the town. “We cannot afford to have police on the streets whenever there is a crime for the first two days, and after that none can be seen” he said.

Spanish Town has been affected by sporadic violence for some time now as rival gangs – the Clansman, who support the ruling People’s National Party and the One Order, who are aligned to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party – fight for turf and control of a lucrative extortion business in the town.

With frustration mounting over the bloodletting, the Power of Faith Ministries – in association with the Jamaica Full Gospel Assemblies – staged an all-day prayer vigil at the Spanish Town Prison Oval in the town yesterday.

According to Spanish Town ministers fraternal chairman Bishop Rowan Edwards, the Full Gospel Assemblies believe Spanish Town and Jamaica are under a curse which must be broken.

He urged Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to call a national gathering of churches and Christians at the National Stadium to ask God for deliverance from the scourge of crime and violence. Yesterday’s day of prayer, he said, was for the healing of the nation and to send a signal to criminals that the violence and carnage must stop.

“We want to take this service of prayer nationally. We want a united gathering of every church to meet at the National Stadium to spend a day crying out to God,” said Bishop Edwards. “What we are doing here today is for the Spanish Town community, but we want to take it nationally to the National Stadium where the prime minister herself would call the gathering and say let’s go before God for help.”

Since her March 30 inauguration as Jamaica’s seventh prime minister, Simpson Miller has been reaching out to the church community, asking them to play a more active role in governance and has said she would order the inclusion of pastors on the boards of state agencies.

“The PM is calling on the name of God so much, I think that the quicker she gets it done the better it will be,” Bishop Edwards said of his proposed gathering of churches.

During yesterday’s vigil, aptly titled ‘Heal the family, heal the nation, curse the curse’, Opposition member of parliament for Central St Catherine, Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, was overcome by emotion as she condemned the recent spate of murders.

Grange, whose constituency includes sections of Spanish Town, was in the middle of an address to the worshippers when she stopped talking for about a minute, held down her head and appeared to be crying. Nearly the entire congregation, housed under two large tents and spilling over onto the grounds, began shouting “hallelujah” and “praise the Lord”.

Grange resumed speaking after being consoled by Spanish Town mayor Dr Andrew Wheatley, who was among the guests on the platform,

“I condemn fully the murders that have been taking place in Spanish Town,” Grange said. “I totally condemn it. It doesn’t matter who is doing it, it doesn’t matter what side is doing it or if all sides are doing it. I condemn it unreservedly. I am appealing for it to stop now.”

The ministers who addressed the vigil said that the Devil was let loose like a roaring lion in Spanish Town and encouraged prayers for restoration and spiritual deliverance. They called on political leaders to publicly denounce violence and tribalism and asked God to penetrate the Clansman and One Order gangs and silence them.